no work=more knit i haven't posted in awhile, partially because i just liked seeing my rant at the top of my blog, but mostly because things have been crazy busy at work, and i've been dilligently working on some craft swaps. but now i have a few weeks off work, and infinite time to knit!!

so guess what i finished yesterday?

Kellen's Storm Socks!! finalllllly! i started these bad boys when? May 23, that's when! i think they took longer than any other socks i knit, and they didn't even have a fancy pants pattern! it's because i made them too big to begin with, and ignored the problem until i finished the gusset decreases...and then frogged them because i was running out of yarn and knitpicks discontinued that colorway. other adventures with this sock include getting my needles stuck in some gum that i had spit in a wrapper and stuffed in my purse (i'm such a smart knitter, let me tell ya) and bending one of my needles at a 90 degree angle during a knit-in-bed session.

an observant blog reader, or just one who isn't blind, will notice that the stripes do not line up. this is because i made every effort to get them to line up. i was so pleased when i finally found the damn part of the color repeat for the second sock (you'll see that they both start out with the same color, that i just cast on and knit away. when i finished the ribbing, i held it up to compare to the other sock...and realized that on the second sock, i was knitting from the center of the yarn...and on the first one i knit from the outside. so the stripes are opposite. i could have ripped out, yes, but i knew if i did that, i risked stuffing the sock down the couch and telling kellen i didn't know what socks he thought i was making him. the knitting gods just do not want me to make perfect socks for my life partner, ever. maybe it's to prove his patience and acceptance of me, and all my mismatched striped flaws? yeah, i'll tell myself that.

specs: yarn is knitpicks simple stripes in storm. 2 balls made a pair of Men Size 10 socks with a wee bit left over. US size 1 needles, but honestly, i think i'll use 0s when i knit with the other simple stripes i have. i'm not a loose knitter (ha ha) but i'd like my socks to be a little more tightly knit.

so i'm starting to realize i'm a wee bit addicted to knitting kellen socks.

this is my latest knitpicks order (well, most of it, you'll see...) the green is Essential, and it's going to become the Almost Argyle socks for kellen (speaking of...i can't remember where i stuffed that pattern. oops). the gorgeous varigated is from their Memories line, called Hawaii. i think it'll turn into pomatamouses for me, and the gorgeous lace weight? that's Shimmer in Turquoise Splendor. i cast on a Branching Out in this, hopefully for my grandmother's birthday, but i don't know if the pattern suits her best. so we'll see where that goes.


i've also been working on a fiber trends felted alpaca. i can't wait for this little guy to be finished. i love him already. although i can't help the sick feeling that i'm knitting a skinned alpaca right now. i'm waiting for more wool of the andes to come in the mail...and it better come today because he needs to be finished, felted, and dried by saturday for the fair! yes, i'm a nerd, i put my knitting in the fair. but hey, at least this way i can say i'm an Award Winning Knitter, right? even if it was only second and third place in the novice catagory at the county fair. ;)

  ¶ 9:23 AM